I have long been fascinated by families that homeschool while both parents are working. In the popular image, homeschooling involves a mom who is not in the paid workforce teaching her brood around the kitchen table. Some homeschooling families might look like that, but not all do. I think I am drawn to this topic because it shows the limits in how many people think about time — that homeschooling and work must be done at certain simultaneous times and are thus mutually exclusive. But time is bigger than that and with some flexibility (for both work and schooling) it can work.
Our guest on today’s episode of Best of Both Worlds, Anandi Raman Creath, works in the tech world, and was a guest on the show many years ago talking about how she balanced work and life. Today she’s back talking about her homeschooling journey, and how her family found this to be right choice during a few stretches. She talks about the schedule and what it looked like and some of the resources (like co-ops and virtual classes) that are available. She gives advice for people considering this option.
In the Q&A we talk about an issue lots of families have faced. How do you handle it if one child needs a lot more attention than others? In this case it was because of a medical issue, but there could be many reasons. We talk about trying to make sure that all kids get some special time even if it isn’t exactly equal (there can be some dividing and conquering going on). Please give the episode a listen!
